Unethical venue

Carla1019

Did anyone experience issues with their venue or vendors regarding money? How did you handle it?

My wedding is in 12 days and the venue has been paid in full for awhile now. On Saturday we had our last meeting with the venue's coordinator and she told me a credit card needs to be placed on file in case of any extra charges that may arise on the day.  I understand.

Today I find a large sum of money has been put "on hold" $1000. I call and find out that this money will be released 1 week AFTER the wedding. I understand they must verify if I have money on my credit card but to put a hold on it this far in advance is crazy. Second, why will it take a week to release? This is not in my contract. Is there anything I can do?

Also, this is not the first issue I am having with this venue.

calixtine

I don't see anything unusual about this.  We had to write a check for a deposit for our venue, which they cashed and kept until after the wedding.  We got the money back about a week after the wedding and I thought this was a pretty good turnaround time.  If they had just held the check or taken credit card info but not actually taken the money out, then the venue would have had no guarantee that the money would have been there after the wedding. In fact, I think in many cases the money would have long been spent by that point so it would do the venue no good to try to get their money back after the wedding is done.

Maggie0829

If it isn't in your contract then there is a problem.

I would talk to your venue about this situation ASAP!  I think it very odd that they didn't tell you prior to putting that money on hold that they were basically going to charge you $1000 now but reimburse you 1 week after your wedding if there were no extra charges involved.  Why not just charge the card once those extra charges have been made?

Seems pretty suspicious in my book.

doublenn

I can't speak to the other behaviors of your venue, but I think that the reason there's a 1 week hold is because of how the banks work, not because of your venue.

They probably remove the hold from your credit card as soon as they realize they don't have any extra damage that they wanted to charge you for, but it takes the bank/credit card company a few days to process it and for it to actually show up on your account. So they probably mean "you'll see the money released about a week after".

Maggie0829

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_unethical-venue?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:9Discussion:fcd2db82-6d2e-4fb4-a629-ac3ffdb452b9Post:b96dd343-4058-46e7-a464-6f7d1f932dbd">Re: Unethical venue</a>:
[QUOTE]I don't see anything unusual about this.  We had to write a check for a deposit for our venue, which they cashed and kept until after the wedding.  We got the money back about a week after the wedding and I thought this was a pretty good turnaround time.  If they had just held the check or taken credit card info but not actually taken the money out, then the venue would have had no guarantee that the money would have been there after the wedding. In fact, I think in many cases the money would have long been spent by that point so it would do the venue no good to try to get their money back after the wedding is done.
Posted by calixtine[/QUOTE]

The only difference between your situation and OP is that you knew about the secuirty deposit before having to fork over the money and you had to give this deposit at the time of booking

In OP case, this "deposit" came out of the blue and it is not in her contract.  This type of thing should be spelled out so that the client knows what is going to happen.

Summer2011Bride

The only thing that bothers me about this is that it wasn't in your contract. I would definitely go talk to the venue coordinator about that and argue it if it truly isn't in there. I can see why they do it and don't feel holding the money is unethical for reasons PPs listed, but it should definitely be in the contract.

Maggie0829

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_unethical-venue?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:9Discussion:fcd2db82-6d2e-4fb4-a629-ac3ffdb452b9Post:e07b3930-5bc8-4c83-9988-a574443d34e8">Re: Unethical venue</a>:
[QUOTE]The only thing that bothers me about this is that it wasn't in your contract. I would definitely go talk to the venue coordinator about that and argue it if it truly isn't in there. I can see why they do it and don't feel holding the money is unethical for reasons PPs listed, but it should definitely be in the contract.
Posted by Summer2011Bride[/QUOTE]

This makes so much more sense then what I wrote!

I understand why they want to "hold" the money, but my worry would be why all of a sudden are they asking for this and why was it not in my contract/why did they not inform of this "hold" before "charging" the card?

Carla1019

Thanks! I feel the coordinator said one thing and did another. She told me the only reason they will charge the card is if we gave them the go ahead. I specifically told her that if anything came up I will give them cash that day and she said "okay" but she needed a CC on file. When she took my CC on Friday she should have told me that they would put a hold on it immediately.

aragx6

I guess my question is if it is causing a problem for you. Yes, I think they should have laid this all out for you, but unless it's keeping you from being able to pay other things I probably wouldn't push it. I wouldn't want to damage my relationship with the venue so close to the wedding KWIM?

jmayinc

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_unethical-venue?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:fcd2db82-6d2e-4fb4-a629-ac3ffdb452b9Post:ef7ea9cd-9a7e-4da4-bd41-5449156c5e9c">Re: Unethical venue</a>:
[QUOTE]I guess my question is if it is causing a problem for you. Yes, I think they should have laid this all out for you, but unless it's keeping you from being able to pay other things I probably wouldn't push it. I wouldn't want to damage my relationship with the venue so close to the wedding KWIM?
Posted by aragx6[/QUOTE]

I agree with this. As much as it would irritate/piss me off, if I could spare the money untill a week after the wedding, I would just leave it and possibly leave a review about them and their shady business lol I wouldn't make a big issue out of it, but knowing me I probably would mention it to them and let them know it needs to be placed in the contract to avoid issues with future brides.

Summer2011Bride

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_unethical-venue?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:fcd2db82-6d2e-4fb4-a629-ac3ffdb452b9Post:1313ee8c-b4e6-492c-b867-2437c5c04093">Re: Unethical venue</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: Unethical venue : I agree with this. As much as it would irritate/piss me off, if I could spare the money untill a week after the wedding, I would just leave it and possibly leave a review about them and their shady business lol I wouldn't make a big issue out of it, but knowing me I probably would mention it to them and let them know it needs to be placed in the contract to avoid issues with future brides.
Posted by jmayinc[/QUOTE]

I see that and agree with it; my only concern would be that if they were under-handed/shady about the deposit, what else might they throw at her at the last minute that isn't in the contract? Hopefully nothing, but if they did it once, I'd be concerned they may do it again, especially if she said she's had other issues with the venue, and I would personally want them to know I do look at the contract and they can't just keep making stuff up, KWIM?

StefffiC

You can file a fraud charge against the $1000 and Visa may reimburse you.

By the time it's been processed by the venue your wedding will be over.

Or, you could report them to Visa for how they store CC information, I'm sure they'd appreciate that equally as much!

bonge

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_unethical-venue?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:9Discussion:fcd2db82-6d2e-4fb4-a629-ac3ffdb452b9Post:17e6f998-9d9c-4a25-91cb-01c7de2c55f6">Re: Unethical venue</a>:
[QUOTE]I can't speak to the other behaviors of your venue,<strong> but I think that the reason there's a 1 week hold is because of how the banks work, not because of your venue</strong>. They probably remove the hold from your credit card as soon as they realize they don't have any extra damage that they wanted to charge you for, but it takes the bank/credit card company a few days to process it and for it to actually show up on your account. So they probably mean "you'll see the money released about a week after".
Posted by doublenn[/QUOTE]

Nope, completely false. They took a pre-auth which can be deleted by the venue as soon or as late as they want. I take them all the time at work.

I think it was a bit shady that they won't give it back for a week & took it off without permission.

babe915

I work at a hotel and we charge incidentals all the time usually $20 a night. As soon as the room checked out alright we release that money. It is then up to the bank to get that money to you and yes it does take the bank up to a week to get that back to you. Your venue wont have any control over when you can get that money back after they release it, it will be i the banks hands.
I agree it is weird they put a hold of $1000 already but maybe that was just an authorization to see if you have that money? I would wait and see if you get that money back in a week.